1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a bracket for mounting wiring devices such as electrical receptacles, switches, and the like modules to be installed in the wall surface of a building.
2. Description of the prior art
Brackets for supporting wiring devices are extensively utilized in the art for installation of the wiring devices, such as electrical receptacles and switches in the wall surface of a building or home. For easy mounting of the wiring devices without the need of any tool, a bracket assembly has been proposed by the applicant of this application as seen in Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-249 issued on Jan. 6, 1983. This prior bracket is formed to have an opening for mounting wiring devices. Each of the wiring devices is of a modular type having a strap with mounting ears which project on either side of the body portion for snapping connection into corresponding slots formed in each of side bars or jambs of the opening. For effecting this snapping connection, one of the jambs is provided with a resilient strip and cooperative therewith to form therebetween the slots into which the mounting ears are snapped through the flexing or elastic deformation of the resilient strip. In detail, the resilient strip is made to flex outwardly so as to allow the insertion of the mounting ear into the corresponding slots past the resilient strip, after which it returns inwardly to lock the mounting ears into the slots. Thus, the snapping connection can be made by simply flexing the resilient strip without resorting to a tool such as a screwdriver, enhancing the convenience of mounting the wiring devices to the bracket. Although with this convenience, the prior bracket suffers from an increased depth of the resilient strip which results from the structural limitation that the resilient strip is connected at its longitudinal ends to the adjacent jambs respectively through U-shaped hinge sections extending rearwardly of the bracket in a plane perpendicular to the general plane of the bracket. To provide a sufficient amount of resilient deformation to the resilient strip, the U-shaped hinge sections are elongated in the depth direction to thereby add an increased depth to the overall structure of the bracket. Such increased depth requires correspondingly an increased depth for the hole provided in a wall board or the like wall finish and therefore might pose a problem in a particular site where the wall finish is too thin to accommodate the bracket or even the rearwardly projecting resilient strip.